In 1914, Grant Wood was working at the Kalo Shop, an Arts and Crafts collective known for its fine hand-wrought silver, while attending courses at the Art Institute of Chicago at night. At Kalo he met Kristopher Haga, a Norwegian silversmith, and together they opened the Volund Shop, named for the Norse god of metalsmithing. Wood and Haga produced modest domestic items and jewelry, and occasionally made larger pieces such as this service. They closed Volund within only eighteen months, after which Wood went on to become a celebrated regionalist painter and Haga returned to the Kalo Shop.